10th Annual Business Lessons From the Movies

[00:00:00] Well, come to the Entrepreneur Exchange on the MESH podcast network. I'm monthly conversation about startups and small business with ideas, tools, and advice to operate your business more effectively on today's show. It's our annual Business Lessons From The Movies, Pied-Tacular Edition.

[00:00:24] It will be joined by the founders of the FootChandle Film Society, Alan Jackson and Chris Frye. We'll give you some movie ideas to make it through the holidays with a minimum of awkward conversation with your in-laws.

[00:00:36] We'll also share some small businesses that you should be checking out in our small business of the month feature. My name is Jeff Nuvil. I'm your co-host. I'm the Director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Kano, over North Carolina.

[00:00:50] I'm joined by my co-host Gary Muller, who is Executive Dean of Economic Development and Corporate Education at Club by Community College. I get that right Gary. God bless you, you did. All right, so impressed. It's always going here. It's always going here.

[00:01:05] Fluid and organic and don't count it. I'll get a right next month. I'm sure you're welcome. You're doing okay. Doing okay is a good word. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. That's great. Have you done your Christmas shopping? I've done some for the children. Some for the children.

[00:01:19] I've done some for the grandchildren. Let's not forget about the children. The children are important. Okay, that's what they tell me. That's right. We also have our friends and colleagues Chris Frye and Alan Jackson. Chris Allen, how are you guys doing? Doing great.

[00:01:35] We always look forward to doing this every year. So excited to be here. Appreciate the invitation to come back and join all of us. Yeah, that would be a nice idea. Happy holidays.

[00:01:44] It's always a pleasure to have you guys and it's a pleasure to see you throughout the year and the foot-kind and all film society here in the Hickory, North Carolina, Katava County.

[00:01:56] Put on brings it a movie each month that often is not going to make it to our local multiplex and usually a little bit interesting and not always added ordinary, but a little bit maybe more critically acclaimed and we're always we're appreciative of

[00:02:13] being part of the film society and the work that you guys do with that. Thank you. Appreciate that. Now it's been, we've been doing it for Helen now, Chris. How long since the film society had been running? 2008 was a way of thinking about that. So that's what 14 years?

[00:02:24] Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. 14 years and then we were going to go into our ninth film festival year coming up this fall or just coming fall. We host a film festival here. I think we have the foot-kindle film society.

[00:02:37] Any host of film festival here over, I think, four days. Maybe it's five days now. I don't know. You guys are going to be seven this year. Okay, it's going to be a whole week. That's what six extra looks like.

[00:02:48] Yeah, just take off the whole week and come join it with us instead of Timberd. We'll be fine. Yeah. Well, I don't know if I'll take off a whole week, but I will be joining us in the meeting and always, Jeff, you don't have to say that.

[00:03:01] Oh, I go. I do. I do. I've seen that vaccine me there. I know. I'm not permission to say that. I'm just saying you're thinking back, you're going to be able to work for a week. I'm probably not. I don't know. Anyway, our main topic today.

[00:03:14] Business lessons from the movie, the movies and our premise as it has been for the last several years is that we all love the holiday season. We love spending time with our family and our friends. We love giving gifts. We love getting gifts.

[00:03:30] But there will probably come a time when we might need some downtime. When we might want to put something, whether it be Netflix or some on-demand service or whatnot on and not have to talk as much, just relax with the family.

[00:03:46] So our job is to give you some ideas of movies, documentaries, whatever, some things to watch could be classics, could be obscure. And our job is to try to find a business lesson in these movies. That's the challenge that we face today.

[00:04:04] With that said, we've all picked a couple. We have not discussed them with one another. We have not discussed them with other singers across that we don't have any overlap. Chris Allen, which of you would like to go first? You want me to go first? Sure.

[00:04:17] Well, right off the bat, I'm going to bend the rules just a little bit. I think the definition of a film or movie is these days is a little bit broader. There's a lot of forms of entertainment out there that may not fit into the normal movie

[00:04:35] format of these sit down for hour and half two hours and watch it one time. So I'm going to cheat just a little bit with my first choice and that this is not technically a movie. It is technically a very, very short limited series.

[00:04:49] But I tend to watch these things in one batch. And if you watch all four episodes of this, it is two and a half hours. It's a long movie. That's a movie. Is that okay? Am I allowed to give this big? Okay.

[00:05:02] That's too late to stop your name. Well, I mean, I've got my back up but this is the one I really wanted to key in on. Because this is relatively new. This is like really within the last two months. I think showing up on Netflix.

[00:05:14] The name of it is Pepsi wears my jet. Okay? Pepsi wears my jet? Yeah, with a question mark at the end. Pepsi comma wears my jet. All right. So I'm taking it by you guys scribbling the name down that you're not familiar with this series.

[00:05:30] And that's exciting because now I get to tell you the story about this and what the lessons are you get from the series. Okay? Do you guys recall back in the 1990s that Pepsi had a big promotional campaign, their Pepsi points.

[00:05:44] The idea of you buy Pepsi, you get these little points on it. You build up these points and they have a catalog of all these things you can buy with these Pepsi points. They made a commercial where it was showing that a kid was getting sunglasses.

[00:05:57] He got with this Pepsi points and he's got a backpack or something like that. And then he walks out of his front yard and a hairier jet lands. And along the commercial it's saying like sunglasses, 20 points, backpack, 50 points, whatever.

[00:06:11] The hairier jet lands and it says, hairier jet, 7 million points. He hops in the hairier jet and flies off the school. Okay? Ha ha, funny. He's a joke commercial. However, in 1996 a 21 year old business student named John Leonard, looked at that commercial and said, you know what?

[00:06:29] I won't that hairier jet. And nowhere in the commercial did it say that this was a joke. And it did not say that there was any stipulation why I could not raise 7 million points and get a hairier jet.

[00:06:41] So this little mini documentary series which you know, four episodes worth is basically showing you how he went about going against Pepsi. He basically went and raised enough money with other investors to buy enough products and things to be able to get the 7 million points.

[00:07:01] But Pepsi refused honor it saying that the commercial was made in a joke. So the whole series is basically they're back and forth on, you know, what's legitimate? What's right for the businesses to do when they decide? It's advertising.

[00:07:14] What the marketers should have done or shouldn't have done with it. And it's back and forth. Law suits. There's a whole lot of things. They bring in Cindy Crawford. She's doing parts of the interviews for the show because she was like the big Pepsi Spugs

[00:07:28] person at the time. You hear interviews with some of the actual Pepsi executives at the time. And then John Leonard himself, the young guy who went after this, he's kind of the main character we follow. It's really fascinating because we all live through it.

[00:07:44] We can kind of when they show the commercial on the show, so I recognize that I remember this. But what's really fun about it is, to me, those lessons that you do pull away from it.

[00:07:55] You look at this and Pepsi made some bad moves in this whole situation. That probably could have fixed this and made it a smarter move for them to do. First off, they didn't really trust their marketing professionals. Supposedly the story is,

[00:08:14] this was actually in the show or if I read it about it afterwards. They're marketing team that was helping put together the campaign for these points. When this whole idea of the Harry or Jetlanded came in, their initial pitch was, we need to make it 700 million points.

[00:08:29] We need to now, rate just number to be on the screen that nobody could even like possibly reach. The Pepsi executives said, we don't like the way that looked and they eventually whittled it down to 7 million points because they thought that looked better on the screen,

[00:08:43] even though the marketing professional said. I don't know about that, but that's fine if that's what you want to do. Of course, that's what led Mr. Leonard to saying. 7 million points, I actually did the calculations on this. I can actually pull that off.

[00:08:57] 700 million probably would not have been able to do. But anyway, it's just a little bit of, they didn't really listen to their marketing professionals. They didn't listen to the people giving them advice on what would present better for the public. Obviously, the idea of doing what you say,

[00:09:12] you know, I mean, the company did not disclane that that was a joke, did not do anything to have a disclaimer on it at all. So should they have got the guy a Harry or Jet? You have to watch the show to see how it ends up,

[00:09:25] but should they have done it from day one? Maybe, I mean, I don't know. Was it a worthwhile investment for them to buy a Harry or Jet for this guy? Just for the court of public opinion, to look better?

[00:09:38] Luckily for Pepsi, this all didn't transpire when social media was around. Because if it had happened today, they would get raped over the coals and they would be poning up a $32 million Harry or Jet like pretty quickly just to deal with it.

[00:09:52] Sorry, I think it's an interesting lesson about honesty and your advertising and your marketing. Thinking about the court of public opinion, how are people going to read this and see this and follow this? And what do you do when things go south? Because the reaction that's right is,

[00:10:09] to make sure they don't cut coffee. Exactly, same idea. Pepsi did not handle the situation well. They tried to give Mr. Leonard some coupons for Pepsi products. So I think they would have offered a date with Cindy Crawford or something like that.

[00:10:25] But basically it was kind of insulting and then they went around and sued him in counter-suitum. So that's not really the look you want your business to have when there's a meeting with you. Yeah, exactly. So it's thinking about that court of public opinion.

[00:10:39] How do you kind of manage those expectations? Doing what you say you're going to do even if it hurts as a business but it's ultimately going to pay off better for your presence and how people see you as a company and all that.

[00:10:54] Obviously I don't think we're all going to have $32 million mistakes to make in our businesses from most part Pepsi is huge. Obviously multinational corporation. But it's amazing to me when I see a company that big still takes real missteps on how to handle relationships with their customers.

[00:11:12] So anyway, that's Pepsi. Where's my jet? And how do you know? I have like a warehouse full of Pepsi when the look cleared. I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you how it happened.

[00:11:22] Because again, that was part of the reason for me to learn to watch it was like, I'm now familiar with the situation. I want to see how John Leonard ends up at the end. Is he flying around in a hair year jet?

[00:11:32] Does he have one in a hanger? Or is he just surrounded by Pepsi? I don't know. And the way the way you, I'm not, I don't remember the commercial. I suspect if I see it, it watched the show, which I'm interested in doing now.

[00:11:43] Maybe I'll remember it all the time. Yeah, but Pepsi couldn't make the play. So this was for a ride on a hair year jet. We're not actually giving you said hair year jet. I don't know how that would have been interesting.

[00:11:53] I wonder if there was probably some rationale for that. I think it's just the fact that the Pepsi product catalog were all merchandise you could buy. So when they show a jet in that same framework, Pepsi did try to make the argument of saying, well,

[00:12:06] the jet was never in the printed catalog that we had at all the stores. That's our argument of saying why it's obviously not legit. But how hard would it have been just a simple little disclaimer at the bottom of the commercial saying, not an actual price?

[00:12:20] You know, that's it. It's like these commercials actor. Yeah, exactly. This is an actor, not a real person. Yeah, I, you know, the soda wars have gone on for so long. I wonder, has anyone ever done a movie on New Coke in the whole that's the decision?

[00:12:38] I mean, that would be interesting. So I was always a Coke person. It was supposed to populate. But I was certainly a business. That's a stating to me as I'm a Coke person. And then it was quite the business decision that didn't appear to be researched properly.

[00:12:57] That would make for an interesting documentary or movie or something. I agree, completely agree. And this kind of goes in line with I think that kind of relate a little bit. If you remember there was even a documentary about the McDonald's monopoly game.

[00:13:10] I think it's called Mcmillions where that was like a big turned up to be a big controversy where the whole Mcdonald monopoly game that was played the McDonald's for many years. Turn out they were like prizes not being distributed correctly or something.

[00:13:23] So there was a little bit of a documentary series about that as well. And kind of in the same vein. So my recommendation is sit down and watch all four episodes back to back is a two and a half hour movie.

[00:13:32] Therefore it counts as a movie I can recommend on our movie podcast. That is fine. Well, let's start with the crash. Chris, what are you going to start us with? Okay, so like Alan, I'm kind of scrooving the rules a little bit. But this, it is it.

[00:13:47] I'm recommending a documentary. I always put this up with one documentary and one narrative. This year, I'm actually going to need two documentaries. But both are really, really, really good. This one is on Disney+, so if you have that service, it's easily accessible to you.

[00:14:02] And like Alan's recommendation, bending the whole movie thing. It is 360 minutes. So it's like five or six episodes. But what it is, it's called light and magic. And it is a documentary that follows the formation of industrial light

[00:14:18] which you may have heard of this small little company that George Lucas started. George Lucas, him being of Star Wars. But it follows, it reminded me of kind of the hear stories of the early days of Apple

[00:14:28] forming the Steve Jobs and Mousti Wazniak and kind of as an intergarage type thing. That's how light and magic started. And George Lucas threw together a bunch of basically nerds who liked, you know, looking at comic books and had like little figures also like.

[00:14:44] And they, what they achieved was amazing. And they also had to do so many innovations to get things working right. Two different things I'll share. Just quick little stories that give you some insight. George Lucas was all shooting Star Wars but he was doing all that, you know,

[00:14:59] acting stuff. These guys were supposed to be doing the effects. They had like a slip inside out in the parking lot. They were having pizza and beer parties every day. He comes back and he's like, what have you guys been doing?

[00:15:12] He hasn't been there with the employees kind of watching what was going on. But they managed to put together the special effect of when the escape pod leaves the star destroy it at the beginning of the movie.

[00:15:22] And after he saw that, he's like, okay, but you need to be doing more of this. Basically they had done one effect shot when they were supposed to have been doing a lot more. Like basically completed the effects for the movie. So that was one thing.

[00:15:36] The other thing that was really interesting, you talk about innovation, small business and everything. Industrial light magic was responsible for doing the effects for Jurassic Park. They started doing them because of the background all practically, which means you basically have little puppets doing stop motion stuff.

[00:15:53] They done that for Empire Strikes back. They don't want to stop motion work in that. They were doing the stop motion work for Jurassic Park. But two of the employees were like, you know what? I think we can do this on the computer.

[00:16:05] And so on their own time at night and stuff, they were stuff up. And then when Steven Spielberg came around, they're like, hey, we just wanted, and they actually, I think he came around just to say hello, but they had it running in the background in their office.

[00:16:19] And he was like, well, what's that? And at that point, he was like, okay, yeah, we've got it. He's like, no, this is what I want. So it was just really interesting to see people take their ideas and you put the right people in the right place together

[00:16:34] who have the same share the same vision. And it was amazing, the stuff that came up with that doesn't seem like it would work, but it did work in the course of all these other companies starting copying the way they were trying to do things.

[00:16:46] So it is a little long. They're in 60 minutes to couple of episodes. But it's also fun because they're talking about effects for Jurassic Park, ET, Raiders of the Lost. I mean, all these moves are like, oh yeah, they did the biggest of the big ones. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:17:02] So it's just really cool to see the behind the scenes all in one place of these people doing the effects. So light and magic is on Disney+. It's also directed by Lawrence Cazden who directed my favorite Star Wars movie, which is in Perstrakes' Pack.

[00:17:16] So there's that, and he was given like, un-pressed in an adaccess to like all this footage. These people had shot over the years of them doing behind the scenes. So if you like any of those movies and maybe you're not really the documentaries,

[00:17:29] watching this, you learn a little bit about how to run a business, but also just see a lot of really cool things about the movies. So how like those faces melted in Raiders of the Lost. Yes, yes, absolutely. They show you that one as well.

[00:17:41] And how they came up with that idea and everything. Cool. All right. Very good. Very good. Excellent. Gary, what are you going to do? My condos about. Really straightforward. And of course, Tizen did one of my themes. Elvis. Oh, I see. I know that was so good.

[00:17:59] I think about that. I was trying to think of a new movie in the last few months. That's perfect. Yeah, good. Well, I mean, it's, of course, he's great. I've never done Bowie in the Rhapsody, you're rockin' man.

[00:18:09] So I learned about all these stars and see how successful they are, but how they're taking advantage of from business or their successes, taking them down bad roads. And of course, Elvis is a classic. Super star.

[00:18:25] Of course, I was able to watch it many times because my wife's in love with Elvis. And she was okay. And then she said, this is great for your podcast. Perfect. Because really is what happened to them from a financial standpoint. I'll thank him. This is Mueller.

[00:18:41] Yes, there you go. So yes, so that was the whole situation where Tom Parker, Colonel Tom Parker, kind of. Took some advantages and according to the movie anyway. And that relationship, yeah, that was a fascinating relationship between an artist and someone just focused on the business.

[00:19:00] Yeah, I just treated him like a commodity in like- And he knew how to work with his problems. So Colonel Parker took advantage of all the success because Elvis is just trying to create music and being in her tanner.

[00:19:12] And of course, there's some really good things about Elvis. That I didn't know, of course. I really enjoyed that film. It was really a great creative, very different. But I just, I did not know anything about the Colonel Tom Parker relationship. I heard some things, yeah.

[00:19:28] I didn't know, so it was very interesting. I'm glad that they kind of focused a lot on that because that was really kind of intriguing. So yeah, that's a good one. Likewise, I learned a lot.

[00:19:37] And you who Elvis wasn't at her, yeah, he was taking advantage of it. But then just something simple that boggled my mind and I never thought about it before. They made it, Tom Parker made it so that Elvis was never able to tour. I don't know.

[00:19:52] Outside the United States. I was like, do what? And like, I had never dawned on me. I'm like, that's ridiculous. And you think about all these world traveling musicians. And that's how they made their money as they go into it.

[00:20:02] And he wanted to go to country other countries. And they'd make millions and just tons of money. I'm like, oh, wow. He thought nothing could control he had over there. And of course, when you try to get out, he being Elvis.

[00:20:17] He can't because he's just letting him take over his financial world and he had nothing. Sure. And of course, his dad who theoretically was in charge of the financial side. That knew nothing because I think that could take advantage.

[00:20:30] I mean, it was Colonel Parker did exactly what he was trying to do. We had people that didn't know. Elvis didn't care. He was just trying to do what he did best. And he was treated as the cash cow.

[00:20:42] We're just going to ride this one until until it dries. And eventually does. It does exactly. Well, I, you know, you've brought up other films and years past about the musicians and kind of the The business side of their careers.

[00:20:56] And I'm sure there were musicians and artists before Elvis that probably had some mismanagement or whatever. But Elvis seems to be kind of the original one that we all hear about that.

[00:21:07] The perfect example of such a talented artist that gave control away to other people that then controlled his, his path and some amazing How many other artists still kind of fall in that same trap.

[00:21:21] Even after seeing and hearing the story of Elvis, you still, they still do it. And that just, it's, it's crazy. Well, it happens. I'm sure where the athletes. Oh, athletes. Celebrities. They don't know the business side. Right. Most people don't know the business side.

[00:21:36] And so it's be so easy to get. So really, the lesson is. Put trust in the right people. Make sure it's people that kind of align with your vision and goals of what you want to do as a creator or artist and, yeah,

[00:21:48] maybe keep your finger in the books a little bit. Have a head on. It's going to be a little bit. Yeah. It's going to be a little bit. Yeah. That's great pick. I racked my brain looking at movies from this year.

[00:21:59] I'm like, what's a good business movie from like this year? Yeah. And then Elvis, I just scanned right over. I missed that. That's a great one. Well, I didn't have anything from this year either. So I'm going back into the archives a little bit.

[00:22:11] So, so the two movies I chose are really on the opposite ends of the spectrum of inspiration. Yeah. So I'm going to start on the bad end. The dark are ended and hopefully end on a higher note.

[00:22:26] This is a movie that has mystery and suspense and provides an education about financial markets. That's have some bad language. But I'm recommending the 2011 movie, Margin Call. Oh yeah. It's really about to 2008 stock market crash and sort of roughly based on Lehman brothers

[00:22:48] with UN bankrupt in 2008 takes place over about a 24-hour period where a large investment firm is going through some significant layoffs. And the risk manager played by Stanley Tucci's is fired and as he's going out the door,

[00:23:12] he gives one of his young assistants some information on a project he's working on to look at. And the balance of accounts and he gets into it and finds that basically the company is in way

[00:23:26] way over-leveraged and if based on recent volatility in the market if things swing in a certain direction, basically they are not going to be able to cover the losses that they're about to experience.

[00:23:38] And everyone stays up all night reviewing it and the CEO played by Jeremy Irons comes in and I just find the acting in this movie and the cast in this movie when it's like Stanley Tucci pre-scandal Kevin Spacey, Zachary Kinto.

[00:24:00] You know, Demi Moore has a role in it. I mean it's just to me the acting seems so tight and for a business movie that's primarily taking place in office situations, it's somewhat riveting. The challenge becomes trying to find some business lessons to take out of this.

[00:24:23] How about just don't do this? That's it. What a heck are you thinking? Well at one point Jeremy Irons the CEO helicopters in in the middle of the night and looking impeccable

[00:24:40] and is suit and everything he's talking to people and says that there are three ways to make money in this business. You can either be first, be smart or cheat and we're not going to be proponents of cheating but just in terms of finding a competitive advantage. Yeah.

[00:24:56] Getting being first to the market isn't good coming up with a more innovative smarter way to do things. That's good. We prefer that you don't cheat.

[00:25:04] But basically ultimately he makes the decision that we're going to dump all these bad securities on an unsuspecting market to save our own hides. And basically throw the world into economic chaos and he would rather be first to do it. So anyway think about competitive advantage.

[00:25:27] Some philosophical questions where they're basically sort of grappling with this issue of, you know, is it better to save the company by doing something that's probably not probably not ethically sound and do we have to destroy the ability to save the village?

[00:25:45] Do we sell our customers stuff that we know is junk? Yeah, there's some questions there. And yeah, it's sort of the other lesson is don't do this. You know, I came away thinking, you know, these people are just passing paper around and making tremendous bank.

[00:26:05] You know, it was rather disheartening. So you might want to wait till after Christmas. Wait till a dreary January that day and the winter to watch it today. Yeah, it's pretty blowing out there. But anyway, I find it hard to turn away from watching it.

[00:26:22] It's hard to watch it. It's one of the things I've never seen it. I've always wanted to so I need to I need to. It's on Netflix. I need to raise it up on my queue a little bit and check it out.

[00:26:34] I think there was some really good acting in it. I put on the Pittsburgh on it. Sure. Good. How's that playing? All right. So I'm going to go completely in the opposite direction on just about everything.

[00:26:48] Everything we've talked about so far has been a film that's based in reality or had something to do with a real story, a real character. This film absolutely is not all the films you talked about so far. One's we are generally recommending this one I'm not.

[00:27:03] I don't want to like this movie, but I'll explain why in a minute. And also I don't think I've I don't think I've done just a dumb comedy as a business lesson, but here we get. We're going to try this out.

[00:27:17] So it's Christmas time as we record this and that means that my wife has a tendency to just in the living room while we're just working doing things around the house. Whatever a Christmas movie will be on one of those channels TBS or something.

[00:27:34] It just goes on and on well the yesterday the film Dejure. The film Dejure was a national and put in Christmas vacation.

[00:27:41] I saw this film was on in my peripheral for like one and a half times last night when the three hours I was home before I went to bed. And so it kind of seaped into my memory a lot more than I really wanted it to.

[00:27:55] I don't generally like this movie, I don't think it's really that funny. I think this is Chepi Chase trying way too hard to rekindle his older days in the previous movies.

[00:28:06] But the plot of this film does lend itself to some interesting business lessons for those not familiar with the movie Clark Griswald, Happless father in his family life daughter and son. They've gone on many misadventures in previous movies now they're having the family extended family over for Christmas.

[00:28:28] Hi, Jinks and Sue Clark himself is a how are you describe him he's. And this is actually one of the lessons from the movie I'll take away from it. It doesn'ts wife. He is someone that overextends himself.

[00:28:42] Spreads himself way too thin if he was the CEO of this family. For example he is got his fingers in way too many pots and trying to do way too many things.

[00:28:52] Setting way too high expectations for himself and what is going to happen around him to where you know it's going to come crashing.

[00:28:57] Down around him because of that there's even a scene this movie which is one of the only scenes I like in this movie where he's confronted by his father.

[00:29:05] His father is even like Clark man you you are setting yourself way too high expectation of how things need to be and you need to let go and just enjoy the moment.

[00:29:14] I'm like, oh okay that's good because it's true he was had this grand idea of lights all over the house and what besides Christmas tree they're going to have and all that.

[00:29:24] Of course it's all played for fun, but there is something kind of meaningful to kind of pull from that. The other thing though. There's a whole plot going on where Clark grew his wall and he works in a food additive company.

[00:29:37] He is a food additive developer or something I don't really know. He is expecting a Christmas bonus from his company. He's made this company I think 16 17 years.

[00:29:48] He's gotten one every year so he's expecting a Christmas bonus this year. This year he's going to use his bonus he wants to buy a pool for his house. He's already put it down payment on the pool with the expectation he's going to get his Christmas bonus.

[00:30:01] So of course when the Christmas bonus shows up, it is not actually money this year. It is a membership to a jam of the month cloud or something and it sends Clark into a tail span and he's very devastated.

[00:30:14] Of course you can take the obvious lesson away from this of don't go out and spend money on things that you haven't gotten yet.

[00:30:20] I mean that's one thing to kind of be hopeful about something but don't ruin your family's future by putting money into something you can't afford to do. There's that simple one, but there's also the other thing.

[00:30:32] They kidnap or Uncle Eddie kidnaps to see you of the company and brings them there to have a reckoning with Clark.

[00:30:39] But you know I found myself, I'm kind of, I don't want to say I'm on the side of the CEO but it's like there was never an explicit promise that yes there's going to be a Christmas bonus every year.

[00:30:49] It's kind of employees, I mean that's up to them if they are going to go out and spend money before they actually get it. The CEO is not really it fault.

[00:30:57] However he did create an expectation and I think it's understanding that obviously if you've got something in way you've been doing business for so long and you've brought people along for that many years. You are setting an expectation of kind of how we're going to continue operating.

[00:31:12] What it should he have done? He should have had all hands on meeting with employees and say hey look guys early on like in the summer, but I look here at the deal.

[00:31:20] Not having quite the year we need to have and sorry but we're not going to have a bonus but we're going to really work hard and try to build back up for the next year.

[00:31:27] That would have been an easy thing to do, you save all the expectations and you don't have a lot to do if you'll disappoint it Christmas time. Should Clark have expected a bonus?

[00:31:36] No, but the foundation has been laid by this business and of course they portray the CEO as kind of this wealthy fat cat who doesn't really seem to care about the employees and all that.

[00:31:48] So that's obviously if that was the case as an employee you could be a little more upset about it. I do think there's a couple interesting lessons.

[00:31:55] Again not a movie I'm recommending I don't think it's that great of all the Christmas comedies you can have on this is one I don't think works as well. But there are a couple of interesting lessons to pull from Mr. Griswold. I think it is films. The expectation.

[00:32:10] Yeah. It is. It's a huge but you got to manage their expectations. But if you have people been getting it for 10 years I mean at some point in their brand it becomes part of their salary. Well that's absolutely true. It's not technically right. It's not.

[00:32:28] See, I expect a few. Just like we talked about with Pepsi you know that you are managing what people expect from you and you're having to manage that court of public opinion and that's a great way to just have a real souring relationship within your business.

[00:32:41] You should get a good idea. Give a heads up. Have a honest conversation. Good communication. That would have helped. That helps. So again there's a couple lessons from it from a movie I'm not high on but it's good background when you're when you're doing stuff.

[00:32:55] I mean, I like you there are few scenes that I was enjoyed but if you really sit down and try to watch them movies like do we really need this movie? Yeah. There seem like there's some Saturday night live skits in there for 10 or 15 minutes.

[00:33:08] There's a couple scenes that could be played played for laughs that kind of funny on their own but yeah as a movie it's just kind of it's a crash crash grab movie. Let's do another vacation movie. Let's do it Christmas people love Christmas movies. All that.

[00:33:23] All the time on the concert. So you're so nice. Last night we were watching it and I was kind of complaining about the movie the whole time it was on to my wife which I'm sure she enjoyed. That's always fun for her.

[00:33:32] And the minute it ended the credits ended is like here comes another movie. I'm like, oh what is this going to be? And it was the exact same movie starting right back again with like no hesitation. So anyway.

[00:33:44] National amputeance Christmas vacation there are some things to learn from it. Have it on the background I guess but that's fine. I know. All right Chris what you got.

[00:33:53] So ever since I think we've been invited to do this padacular of always wanted to recommend the film that I'm going to recommend the problem has been.

[00:34:03] Disney has made it unavailable to release on home video the only way people saw it was in 2002 it made the film festival circuit and then they waved their wand in it disappeared.

[00:34:15] It is now the film I'm going to recommend is called the sweat box and you can see it by going to archive dot org which is a free internet site that basically archives a lot things on the internet.

[00:34:28] And they have a copy of the sweat box that there's up there now they don't make any money off it which is probably legally how they can have it up there. The reason I'm recommending this documentary.

[00:34:39] Trudy styler that name Southamilir you know who that is that is the wife of one musician named sting. So this documentary follows the making of the movie The Emperors New groove which when staying signed on was called Kingdom of the Sun.

[00:34:55] Sting was going to do all the music for Kingdom of the Sun his wife said I'll make a documentary this whole process you love Disney films all document the inside workings of animation department.

[00:35:07] Well she did and it includes the moment in the documentary when sting gets a phone call from the producer who says yeah all your music's being dropped from the movie. And this is sting of the police you know like it's a big deal.

[00:35:21] Now all that being said I saw the Emperors New groove when it came out I loved it has David Spade John Goodman you can actually take some business lessons from that David Spade plays this aloof leader of this like ink and country.

[00:35:34] And he you know thinks he knows everything he's all about building himself up making you know changes to the geography building a big resort just for himself.

[00:35:43] But he gets to be friends with John Goodman who kind of shows him like yeah you may want to kind of bring yourself down a notch and kind of pay attention to what's going on around you.

[00:35:52] So that's kind of a business lesson in itself and who you surround yourself with because one of his trusted advisors is the one he's actually trying to also scream over. I'll play by earth a kit in the film so.

[00:36:03] So the film itself in person who grew good movie can learn some business lessons but the sweat box what they're able to capture what she is able to show inside Pixar and inside Disney it's pretty amazing now the title what does that mean.

[00:36:18] Well Disney create at the time when Disney was formed back in like the 30s they made a screening room that was like a wood box it was like all wood there was no air conditioning

[00:36:29] And it was like this pressure situation where they would screen a film and then basically people would tear it apart and say what doesn't work that it worked that it worked.

[00:36:38] So the term they still keep to this day apparently they call the sweat boxes when they get the executives together different producers and they scream like works in progress of films. And apparently the journey to do the Emperor's new groove was rough and they get a big hit.

[00:36:54] Treaty sellers able to capture people like animators like say yeah happens today at 10 and you know really nervous because we've already heard they're going to throw out half the storyboards and also so it's there again I guess both of my picks this year kind of behind the scenes but to be able to see the behind the scenes and the makings of a movie.

[00:37:12] And with the original movie with staying with his music what had it been good. Yeah maybe it's just weird to think that it would have been a completely different movie so it's called the sweat box I recommend it you can find it free online on our cod.org.

[00:37:31] And I've like I said when I think about business lessons and like you know artists trying to work together all these different things like this is great.

[00:37:40] I've actually seen some people jokingly say hey now it doesn't plus says that streaming service where they put it out and I don't know because it is. It's critical obviously at times of the organization itself but it is fascinating so that's not a recommendation.

[00:37:57] I didn't want to watch that I've only seen like a clip of it at one point when I was searching it out so. Yeah it sounds amazing it's good. So it's things last name style or it's a sting style or so he is Gordon some. Gordon some.

[00:38:11] And then I guess she kept her made in whatever but yeah and this he does the thing is like how did this even happen? And he's like oh it's his wife doing the documentary okay because the stuff that she's able to get is pretty pretty amazing.

[00:38:24] And I suspect sting has a reaction when he learns his news he does.

[00:38:29] He does yeah and he ends up kind of I think the way he comes to turn with is like well this is not what I saw non for so if it's going to if you're totally kind of shifting gears then okay I guess I'm going on my part of it anyway but it's fascinating.

[00:38:44] The sweat box. Yes it's a strange name but it has a thing. It's a kind of a connotation when you say a sweat box. It's a manufacturing problem. Right. Yeah. Operation so.

[00:38:58] I kind of love that they still use that term for like the screening room to watch the films. It seems appropriate. It does. It does yeah. All right Gary what's up you. Gosh I've got three one is haven't.

[00:39:13] What do you mind want to save two for next year? I think that's what I got a year to watch that one there. I'll tell you after it. Okay. What women want. That's the male Gibson. No Gibson. Helling on. Yep. Okay. Another Mrs. Muller. No.

[00:39:32] We should bring her on next. That's right. So I have not seen this movie. What's the lesson? Well, well I guess one is the woman. Very successful talent in woman. Yeah. And Mel Gibson is there and basically he's competing with her and goes out of his way.

[00:39:51] He has a plan. Go. He's going sabotage her. Hmm. I guess that if you've seen it. I've not seen the whole. I'm I'm aware of it but I'm not really seeing it. She's seeing. I have seen it. Long time ago but I have seen it. Yeah.

[00:40:05] So it's a little magical thing happens to him and he can think like a woman or something like that. I guess that's the. We can hear what they're thinking here. You're here. You're thoughts. Yeah. Because he's a good sense. No, it's not going to be a sensitive person.

[00:40:17] No. Yes. In every part of his life. Yeah. And so yeah, that's that's the. But basically he's undermining Helen Hunt who is. At the end. I guess I can't tell you what happened. I'm betting there's a happy ending.

[00:40:33] It's a very important thing because you know the mullers have to have a happy ending. Sure. Uh, The cut turns into a romantic. Okay. So it's the lesson we should learn to think like women. Well I think that's true. That's a given. Yes. Yes. I think that.

[00:40:53] Good wins out over evil. Oh, okay. It's always a good business. But it's in in in a business sense. You know what and what there are there in some sort of. Office setting too. Is that some sort of business or marketing business or.

[00:41:07] And and she's very town and very. She deserves to move up through the organization and get where she gets to. But he's exploiting it because he's trying to stop because he'd like to be in that position. Yes.

[00:41:21] If she wasn't there, he'd be he thinks he'd be in that position. I say my saying. Oh yeah. Yeah. So a little corporate entry, a little competitiveness, but okay. But it is. And then a little romance. Little romance. But it ends well. It ends well.

[00:41:37] I'm a bigger fan of Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson. Yeah. I am too. Okay. That's good. No. I've actually. I've never seen it. But that may be one that shows up on my list. It's a good. Hell, a good family. I think you took the words.

[00:41:51] Adam has a family. Good. Can we watch that one with the kids? Yes. You can. Alright. This one you can watch with the kids as well. This is, yeah. This is high on the inspiration. And still. It's a sports movie which I enjoy. Pride underdog story.

[00:42:09] Most of all coming together as a team. Okay. So my inspirational movie is Miracle. The story of the US hockey team. I've had winning the gold medal in 1980. Starting Kurt Russell who plays her Brooks. I was never that big a Kurt Russell fan. You know, fine.

[00:42:29] But I just he made a believe right of me in this particular movie and this particular role as her Brooks. And he puts together team of amateurs. Gary, I know no's the story. You know Chris Malm. A little younger than us.

[00:42:46] I, but I, I assume most people are sort of familiar with the story. And we, you know, we probably watched it. The game on video tape. Yeah. Because that's how it was done at that point in time.

[00:42:57] It wasn't live and we didn't have internet to know who won. So, you know, I think they delayed it a little bit. But, you know, they put together this back in the 1980s professional. You know, I just gave it to the children.

[00:43:12] When you're talking about the United States. To not allow professionals to participate in the Olympics while other countries did. And the Soviet Union, by far, had the best hockey team. And we're expected to win. And we put together this mishmash of collage players from different places.

[00:43:35] Primarily from Minnesota and from Boston. But, you know, they were competing against each other the whole time in college. And he had to put this team together. And ultimately they go on this wild run to win the gold medal. It was boiler alert.

[00:43:51] I think you're okay with that. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, the other than Kurt Russell and the fellow that plays the assistant coach Craig Patrick who's name I would not know if I hadn't gone to look it up. No, I'm Eric. Oh, yes. You guys probably know.

[00:44:06] Yep. And you would know if you saw him. He was in the Americans, which is one of my favorite series. Yes, very, very good. But he's in it. And the rest of them, there might be some actors that Chris now know.

[00:44:18] But really, you know, the guy is playing the team. You know, I don't really know who they are. Yeah. And then I think that thing is good. But the story is magical. And as far as lessons go, I think the biggest lesson is building a team.

[00:44:34] And at one point her book says, I'm not looking for the best players. I'm looking for the right ones, which reminded me. I don't know if you've ever rid the Jim Collins book. Good to great. And he talks about getting the right people on the bus and everything.

[00:44:47] And everything that he's seen. You know, so, you know, to me it was really, you know, how do you go about building a seamless team? And I think he recognizes that he's putting a team together.

[00:44:59] It doesn't have the most talent out there in relation to some of these other European teams and the Soviet team. And, you know, he sort of institutes a hybrid of different types of play.

[00:45:13] And, you know, so a little out of the box thinking and ultimately just a leadership story. You know, if, you know, I recommend watching this movie. It's, you know, it's sort of a, and I'll give you goosebumps. It's a great movie. It's a great movie.

[00:45:31] It's a fact that it's true. It looks like a Disney movie. But, you know, if you don't have time to watch the movie, just go to YouTube and Google, Miracle, you know, pregame speech or something.

[00:45:43] And then listen to Kurt Russell, do his her books where he talks about, you know, great moments come from great opportunities. And tonight we skate with him and we're going to shut him down. And, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, you know, get you going.

[00:46:00] Want to run through that door and go kick some butt. I love inspirational sport movies. I did as well. My favorite genres of film just to come out always have on and just, I can, I can watch any time of the day. I've never seen Miracle.

[00:46:14] I don't know why, but that just, I mean, I do it fit right in that genre. I need to catch up on that. It is great. My own exposure is I used to back in college. I worked for Disney doing.

[00:46:26] I would be assigned to go to movie theaters in the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area. Engaged audience reactions to trailers. That's what I had to do and report them back in to the marketing at Disney, like,

[00:46:41] how people are responding to their trailers and even evaluating them in theater displays and movie posters and stand-ups and like, are they doing, have a magical job? It was.

[00:46:52] It was a very cool job in Miracle as one of the films I had to go and like sit in. And normally, I would try to like just sit and watch the movie after I'm done listening to the trailers.

[00:47:00] But for whatever reason, Miracle, I didn't get to, I didn't get to see. I got to Remy that somehow. I would recommend that one. And I'm trying not to be offended by Chris's choice being a former Disney company. You know, I'd say it was like, what? Nine months.

[00:47:17] I think I did this job for Disney. So, you can watch my leg just as long. You can watch this one with the family and then you'll want to hug everybody then. So it's all like standing up cheering. Yes, nice. It was good.

[00:47:30] Right back in a simpler time. So. Need. Let's come a nice mixture of films. Is that all the recommendations we got? I think that's what we got there. So, Gary, Gary has got a couple in the pocket. He gets ready. I'm excited. In the future. Yeah.

[00:47:45] And he's got Mrs. Muller back and up. That's all good. This research department. That's exactly right. Well, so we've got Pepsi. Where's my jet? Christmas vacation for Malin. Which you know, take a new Christmas vacation. You take, you know, at your own risk. You're going to see it.

[00:48:04] Yeah. It's going to find you. Yes. And it will be playing on a TV somewhere near you. Chris has recommended light and magic, which you can see on Disney+. And the sweat box, which you can see on archive.org. Gary recommends Elvis and one woman want.

[00:48:20] Now, before you go on, Mrs. Muller said I don't really know what women want. I just want you to go on record for that. Yes. Mrs. Muller's getting a lot of play today. Give her a roll to check for this. All right.

[00:48:35] We've got, and I'm recommending, you know, on the different ends of the spectrum, margin, Colin Miracle. So those are some movies that you can be checking out with the family. Well, thank you guys.

[00:48:44] But we also, before we go, we, we, you guys up for a little quick lightning round. This would be playing. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Today's lightning round is sponsored by Ned Ryerson Insurance. Whole life auto flood. Can't have enough insurance. Stay safe with Ned Ryerson.

[00:49:01] You can check it out on the internet. So we've got some quick questions for our Ving. For Alan and Chris. Don't overthink it. Got me. Just quick questions, quick answers. Mm-hmm. What is your biggest pet peeve? I've got one. I've got one. Okay.

[00:49:18] My biggest pet peeve is in a, when you're in a public space and somebody is playing either a music or a movie or a game on loud volume in a public space like a restaurant or something like that. Okay. Now using headphones just playing it out loud.

[00:49:35] Can they talk on the phone or is it just like talking? Okay. Because I understand that's good. You have to talk if you're on the phone. But playing a movie, playing music, especially like kids playing games like you know on little devices

[00:49:46] and a restaurant or a public space. Ooh. I do not like that. Okay. Chris. So ideas that will be individuals who shoot down ideas without giving what they think like they don't They're just like, oh, I don't like it. No. I don't like it.

[00:50:07] Like what, you know, work with me on fun and they're just like, nope. I don't know, I'm like, oh, that's such a missed opportunity to make something better. Like you don't like fun, you know? But why don't you answer just not open mind. Yes, I guess. I wouldn't.

[00:50:20] When discussing ideas, yes. That's exactly exactly. Absolutely. Okay. Now, yeah, the very broad one but this is for you guys. And might be hard for your answer. Do you have a favor after or afters? Yeah, and you know, it's you love all your children, right?

[00:50:37] So it's hard to pick one. But, yeah, there's their one that the overtime is just stood out to you. Wow. The wheels are grinding here. That isn't tough. That's a tough one for them. He's not been in enough stuff recently.

[00:50:55] And I admit the reason I'm fond of because of his involvement in the Star Wars. Maybe he's probably like you and McGregor. He was, yeah, I like him a lot. He's not yet enough now these days. How much you around? You have. It changes all the time.

[00:51:11] But actually it's kind of funny because it's also really a Star Wars. Okay. Oscar Isaac as a new actor. I mean, granted, he's only been the last six or seven years kind of prominent.

[00:51:20] But right now he's the one that if he's in something, I'm going to try to check it out. That was a second, you know, Paul no matter something like that. I don't like it.

[00:51:29] Now, I want to go like classic me rather red for it's always been one of my favorites. I'm at, I'd like just about everything he does as well. So I tend to think more and recent years but I had to go longer term like over the course

[00:51:41] of cinema. Yeah, probably Redford or Newman. I mean, those two I could watch him in the evening. He's casting and some dance. He has one of my favorites. Paul not my favorite. Yes. Kate Blanchard on the theme outside. Yeah. She's just, I mean, she's a really solid actor.

[00:51:55] And she seems, I guess, who are advantage. She gets to pick what role she doesn't do. So therefore when she does decide to do a role, it's usually going to be a really good one. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that one too for the actress. Yeah.

[00:52:08] Do you have a favorite holiday dessert? Holiday dessert. Anything but for your cake. That's my answer. Holiday dessert. I mean, yeah, a lot of favorite desserts. I'm trying to think which one falls under a holiday. No, I don't have a favorite holiday.

[00:52:26] I'm going to talk about fruit cakes. That's hard to go away if we used to do that in business from a businessmen. We take that to people with. Oh yeah. It's hard to find. Yeah. Why did we do that? All right.

[00:52:38] Well, how about a favorite holiday special TV show? You have a, I don't think it's going to be Christmas vacation. But yeah, is there a special show, whether it be... Well, there's a TV or a movie that it's a movie to see at the holiday time. Yes.

[00:52:56] You can get you in the spirit. My favorite Christmas Mary is screwed with Bill Murray. That is one I can watch all the time and it gets me weepy at the end every single time. It always does it. And so yes, I love that movie.

[00:53:11] There are enough months of time night, night, maybe before Christmas and then elf those are two that I, And yes, I basically don't need to actually watch them because I can just play it in my mind

[00:53:23] Because I know all the lines and everything but there's a, there's a, I think you could use elf or screws to find some business lessons. Oh, it's a good job for me. Actually, I should have, that should be a choice. I can't believe that hasn't been a choice.

[00:53:35] I'm so happy. People, you can go watch those movies. You're probably going to, you're probably going to stumble into that sometime in the next three weeks. Very soon. All right, last question, your preference. Logger IPA, AL or something else. Absolutely anything but IPA. Not an IPA guy.

[00:53:55] No sir. Okay, but it's a lot of, I like logger. Okay. I'm not a beer guy. So I would say something else. Give me a glass of whiskey or glass of wine. I can do that. I'm not a beer guy. I fight something else is okay.

[00:54:11] My entire family is beer kind of swirers except me. So I want to tell you. I'd like to know your choices on that question. I do not like IPA's as well. I'll show you an iron.

[00:54:22] I will show you an iron on occasion, but I would much prefer a more of a longer type guy. Although one of the things that happened during COVID is I will say that I was starting

[00:54:36] to feel a bit bloated from the beer so I did get into the bourbon. So yeah, I will make it. Anyone. Here's the solution. Is that where we need to know? Gary, do you have a preference? Coca-Cola. Okay. Not Pepsi. I'll drink Pepsi, but I'm a Coke guy.

[00:54:51] That's right. I always have to be careful because it's not a documentary. You may feel different. There you go. No, no, get rides for you though. All right. Well thank you fellas. It's always a pleasure to have you here.

[00:55:02] We always wind up our podcast with giving a shout out to small businesses. Chris, I know that you've got one that you wanted to share. I do. And keeping with, I think, a tradition in past years.

[00:55:15] I try to do a food when I'm in a Gary's likes food. So, mine is a small business that's actually in downtown Hickory. They are a vegan restaurant and they're relatively new. The name of the restaurant is plant-based boss because if you like if you eat plant-based,

[00:55:30] you can be the boss of your health and all these other things. What I really like about their food is they have things like Jamaican jerk chicken or smoked house deli sandwiches.

[00:55:41] And if you're trying to be healthy, like, oh, I can't have pork or I can't have no. It's vegan. So it is not that is basically a substitute but it tastes amazing. And they also do peanut butter chocolate banana smoothies.

[00:55:54] As always, they're the kind of smoothie stuff that are really, really, really good. So that's my small business. You've never had vegan food, go there and try it because the sauces are the way they make stuff. I don't know, man. It tastes really good.

[00:56:08] So you can be cool. You can be cool. You can be cool without feeling like, oh, this is bland. This doesn't have any taste. So it's kind of cool. So plant-based boss. All right. That is directly across from the care limit theater. This is true. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:56:22] All right. Alan, you got one to share with me? Not as good but, no, that was a good. That was a really good one. I am in my spare time, the little little bit I have. I get into home automation technology.

[00:56:39] So how to automate things in my home, lights and outlets and motion detectors and other things to kind of just automate everything in my home. I want it to be when I walk in the house.

[00:56:49] The light lights come on at the right time and things turn on with my voice. Anyway, it's something my brother and I are both really big into and do a podcast on as well.

[00:56:58] There's a company that he turned me on to that I've been buying some products from. They're a really, really small in the marketplace granted. I know, they're probably bigger than the plant-based boss company but they do make a lot of products.

[00:57:10] But the reason I want to recommend them, they're called Ys which is W-Y-Z-E. So it's Ys.com. They make an assortment of products for your home like home technology. The reason I want to recommend them is, their prices are what I would expect these items should be selling.

[00:57:27] Unlike most other companies I see where there seems to be a real premium put on all of these.

[00:57:33] These are selling products that are very affordable and they make sense for most homes where I think the pricing has been out of reach for a lot of people to do. To invest a lot of money in this kind of home technology.

[00:57:45] We're talking like little cameras, you know, little security cameras, you can put in your house and pull up on your phone and see they've got light bulbs. You know, the whole light bulbs you can get the smart light bulbs.

[00:57:57] There's some expensive places you go and here, you know, like maybe 18 bucks, you know, $16, $18. I mean, which is not to me a lot more reasonable and makes sense.

[00:58:07] And the quality is good. I mean, it's a good quality so I think it's just a company that's tapped in to saying, Hey, look, there's a real need. People want to be doing this kind of stuff.

[00:58:15] They need this kind of gear but unless can we make it affordable and not skimp on quality if we can do it?

[00:58:22] And they seem to be doing that because their quality has been in my experience really good. I've enjoyed all the products I've gotten for the most part. Except one exception, why is just an argument in them about this?

[00:58:35] This is kind of a funny story. I'll make it quick but they do sell a digital scale like a weight scale, which is great. You know, you put in some batteries, you sound your floor, you go stand on it,

[00:58:46] and get a record your weight, and it puts it in your phone. So now I have a track of how I'm doing.

[00:58:51] I, uh, over the course of like nine months or six or nine months, I had one of these and I was watching as my weight was trimming down a little bit. I'm like, this is great. I'm really kind of working on getting my weight down.

[00:59:04] I really wanted to be at a certain point and it looks like the scale showing me I'm getting there. So excited. My family's using it too, and they're all really happy with the results.

[00:59:12] Well, then my mother-in-law walks in one day and she decides to stand on it as soon as she gets up she's like, you're weight, your scale's wrong. I'm like, no it's not just like, no it is.

[00:59:22] And sure enough, I went and put some actual weights on it and yeah, it's off. It is off like a good 10 pound. It got progressively worse over time. Oh man. So other than that product, so were you 10 pounds lighter than Alan? No, no, no, it's 10 pounds heavy.

[00:59:40] Okay. That's fine. But it's still making progress too. Actually, I think it was getting worse over time so I don't think I made any progress. So I was trying to top it out.

[00:59:50] They fixed it as good and of course the new one that came in the first time I stepped on it. Like yep, that's back where I was a year ago. So I'm good to say. It's a good customer service. No, no. Look, their products come out quick.

[01:00:00] I bought some nightlights, some really great little, we're most controlled nightlights to put up on a stairwell. I got them in two days. They're super easy to set up. I got them installed like in 10 minutes and they were great. They look great in a cost like I spent,

[01:00:15] I think I spent 20 bucks on a series of six nightlights going up and down my staircase. I'm going to remote controlled. And so I'm just, I'm a fan. I know my brother turned me onto it because he buys all that stuff from him.

[01:00:28] But it's just a nice to see a company that's tapping into something that is a very trendy, trendy product right now. But doing it in a very cost effective way and making passing that onto the consumers. I'm a big fan of, so yeah.

[01:00:41] Yeah, and you mentioned that you and your brother have a podcast where you just got some of this. So she was plugged brothers and tech. Yep. People can find that on the mesh podcast network as well as apples, Spotify, wherever. I'll all over the place.

[01:00:55] My brother and I just get together and talk home and family technology every week and ideas and recommendations and things we're doing in our own homes. That we think are helpful to people. So yeah, thanks for the plug.

[01:01:07] I listen to it with my wife and we're, you know, peddling around in the shared pieces of it every now and then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'll do it. I'll make sure I do a shout out to her. We're doing a shout out to her.

[01:01:16] We're doing a shout out to her. We're doing a shout out to her. We're doing a shout out to her. Great high quality products. I know your house has a decent. That's good. All right, Gary, what do you got to share today? Well, Chris, are you privy?

[01:01:29] Food, food, sweets, Charleston, Chau, Munshai. Charleston, Chau, we love Charleston. Well, love chocolate. I can't drink Munshai. But it's about candy. Very much. And truffles. It's right by the market downtown. And of course, I thought it was great. And I'm sorry Mrs. Markets and other plugs.

[01:01:51] She said that looks great for the podcast. That's that was a great name. And actually started 30 years ago in Pittsburgh. But who else? Folks, and I think it's called, yeah, goody's candy. Well, company startup something similar in Charleston called the Charleston Chocolate Munshai.

[01:02:11] And it's basically a candy store. Sure, too. Sounds great though. It's right there kind of in the downtown. No, log-in, Markets, T-bounds. Yeah, churps. Three or four doors at. Oh, wow. Cool. Next to them down there. Yeah. We saw it every Thanksgiving. Is there any moonshan available?

[01:02:27] I thought so. All right. All right. My shout out is to a company that's called Apollo, APOLA. I was started by two best friends, Casey Jones and Brian. So, Broski, they were involved in the dance world.

[01:02:49] And saw the injuries that occurred to people's feet in the dance world. And so, they actually came up with a Hozier product. Sox to that had graduated compression to provide support to the ankle and the arch to help prevent some of those injuries.

[01:03:07] And they actually worked a little bit with our manufacturing solution center and some of their product development. And then April of this year, they were on Clark Tank. And got a deal with Gary's friend Lori Grner for $300,000 to help expand their business.

[01:03:25] So, if you go to Apollo, with APOLA performance.com, you can learn about them and shout out to them and you can purchase some of their products online if you're interested in that. So, check out. So, check out. That's great.

[01:03:42] I'm always in the market for some good socks. If you have a suggestion for our small business on the month, you can send them to us at eXchangeatthemesh.tv. We'd love to hear from you.

[01:03:53] We want to thank Chris Fry and Alan Jackson for joining us today and sharing their movie selections. And we're going to find out more about foot candles. So, footcandle.org is our website. Don't go to fckandle.com. I don't know where that will take you.

[01:04:09] But could it be treacherous? It's foot candles with an ass, I believe. No, no. I can put candle. Fckandle.org. Okay. And that's where you can see our film screenings that we have coming up each month.

[01:04:21] And then a button to our film festival that the site will be. It'll be updated for the 2023 Festival, probably in the spring. So, yeah, we'll be promoting it there for sure. Fckandle.org.org. Point to everywhere. Sounds good.

[01:04:35] We also want to thank our friends at the Mesh Podcast Network. You can see a lot of, if you go to the Mesh.net, you can actually dot TV.t here. I'm sorry. The Mesh.tv.

[01:04:47] You can see the whole stable of podcast that you can listen to through the Mesh. So, be checking that out and just want to wish everybody happy holidays. Scary. Happy holidays to you. Happy holidays to miss us, Mo. Thank you. Happy holidays to everybody.

[01:05:03] Or on a rare fifth member of the podcast. That's right. I have a, have a, have a listen. You have to tell her that she got credit. A lot to say. I'm going to say that. She was driving today as podcast. Anyway, everybody happy holidays.

[01:05:15] And we'll look forward to talking to you next month. I'm trying to learn a little bit more. I'm going to give it a rock.